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Critique of Knowledge
nvolving meaning. The next stage in the experience, then, is ‘iha'. In avagraha a person simply hears a sound. In sha he cognises the nature of the sound also.88 Jinabhadra says that īhā is enquiry for the distinctive features of the objectes. Akalanka defines Thā similarly.86 Hemacandra defines it as striving for the cognition of the specific details of the object apprehended by sensation.86 It would be apter to use 'associative integration' as standing for I ha. And Iha is the stage in the formation of perceptual experience. It brings in associative integration of sensory elements experienced in the stage of sensation.
Avāya : From the stage of associative integration, ihā, we come to the stage of interpretation. Sensations are interpreted and a meaning assigned to the sensation. That would be perception. Sensation is the first impression of something the meaning of which is not cognised. Perception is the interpretation of sensation in which the meaning is known. Avāya follows in the wake of Ihā. In this stage we reach a determinate experience. The striving for a cognition of the specific nature of the object results in the definite perception of the object. The Āvasyakaniryukti defines avâ ya as determinate cognition.e? In the Sarvärthasiddhi we get the description of ayāya as the cognition of the true nature of the object due to the cognition of the particular characteristics.88 Tattvärthasūtra Bhāşya describes avāya as the stage of ascertainment of the right and exclusion of the wrong.ee Avāya may be compared to the apperception involved in perceptual experience. Perception is a complex experience. The older psychologists analysed perception as involving apperception. Apperception is assimilating new experience to old experience.
83. Nandisūtra, 35 84. Vis eşāvas yaka Bhāşya, 180. 85. Tartvārtharājavärttika I, 15. 2. 86. Pramānamimaṁsā, 127. 87. Vis eşāvas yaka Bháşya, 179. 88. Sarvärthasiddhi, 115. 89. Tatt värtha Sūtra Bhåşya, 115.
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